All isn't lost. Sega can right Sonic. Take a page from Nintendo. The game company has pumped out Mario games since 1983 and very few of them have been duds. The reason is very simple: there's a bar of quality for Mario that creator Shigeru Miyamoto has set for himself and the next generation of developers at Nintendo who handles the franchise. It takes immense discipline to say no to bad ideas and only release games when they're good and ready, not because of schedule deadlines. That's how you maintain an enduring level of satisfaction for a single plumber spanning different game genres over 37 years.